Cheese Tortellini Soup

October is the beginning of soup season in the Lansing household and this soup is by far our favorite.  I first had a version of this soup many years ago at a Christmas dinner party and I thought it was so good that I never made it past the soup course.   As is typical for my cooking, I tweak and tweak until I get the dish to where I am finally happy with it and this soup is no exception.




This soup can be as hard or easy as you would like.  The original version involved dumping all of the ingredients uncooked in to the crock pot and letting it all warm up at the same time.  It was perfectly delicious but I noticed when I went to warm up leftovers the zucchini and squash started to fall apart, it had become so mushy.  Also, I did not like that the sausage was kind of squishy.  And so began the journey to Cheese Tortellini Soup 4.0, including one modification due to an aversion to sausage when I was pregnant.

Before you completely roll your eyes at step three of this recipe, please understand that you don't have to make your own sausage.  It is perfectly acceptable to buy Italian sausage out of the meat case and slice it before adding it to the soup.  Something happened to my brain when I was pregnant and for some reason the idea of store bought sausage still makes me want to vomit.  I know it seems totally snobby but I prefer to buy extra lean ground pork and mix in my own spices.  I also like it because I can reduce the amount of fat/grease.

Ingredients:

32 ounces of beef broth (I used 24 ounces of sodium free and 8 ounces of regular broth)
3 cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes, garlic flavor
3 medium sized zucchini
3 medium sized yellow squash
1 pound of lean ground pork
6 tablespoons of Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons fennel seed, ground
2 tablespoons black pepper
1/4 cup uncooked grits
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bag cheese tortellini, uncooked
Additional Italian Seasoning to taste

Directions:

1.  Bring the beef broth and tomatoes to a light boil at medium high heat.  While the liquids are heating chop the zucchini and squash in nice hearty chunks.

2.  Heat olive oil in a pan and saute the zucchini and squash on medium high heat until lightly browned.  Add three tablespoons of the Italian seasoning to the zucchini and squash.  Add vegetables to the soup.

3.  In a bowl, mix ground pork, ground fennel seed, and remaining Italian seasoning thoroughly.  Form into little balls, about the size of small gum balls, and cook in pan that the zucchini and squash were cooked in--there should be enough oil left behind to prevent them from sticking.  Cook on medium high heat until slightly browned.   Add sausage to the soup.  

4.  Add the grits and cheese tortellini to the soup.  The grits will thicken the soup slightly giving it a more hearty texture.  The cheese tortellini will cook in the broth.  The starch from the pasta will further thicken the soup.

The soup still has too much liquid at this point because the pasta has not fully cooked yet. 

Grits before being mixed in to the soup.  

5.  Once the soup has thickened it is ready to serve.  Serve with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top.

6.  I make grilled cheese sandwiches using Italian garlic butter (that means I melt butter in the pan and sprinkle Italian seasoning and garlic powder into the melted butter).  I use mozzarella and Havarti cheese in the sandwiches.